Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers have pleaded guilty to charges accusing them of torturing and abusing two black men during a raid.
Deputies for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, and one from the Richland Police Department, have been charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and ex-police officer Joshua Hartfield, were all charged in relation to the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January.
Elward was charged with home invasion and aggravated assault for shoving a gun in the mouth of Jenkins and pulling the trigger – in what prosecutors called a ‘mock execution’.
They are accused of assaulting them with sex toys, firearms, stun guns, milk, eggs, alcohol and chocolate syrup.
The officers were all charged in relation to the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker. (Top L-R) Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton, Christian Dedmon. (Bottom L-R) Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke, Joshua Hartfield
They are accused of assaulting them with sex toys, firearms, stun guns, milk, eggs, alcohol and chocolate syrup. Pictured: Michael Corey Jenkins
Dedmon was charged with home invasion after kicking in a door, with McAlpin, Middleton, Opdyke and Hartfield each facing an additional charge of first-degree obstruction of justice.
The victims stared down their attackers after arriving together in court, sitting in the front row just feet away from their attackers families.
Prosecutors say that some of the officers nicknamed themselves the ‘Goon Squad’ because of their willingness to use excessive force and cover it up.
They were targeted after a white neighbor complained that two black men were staying at the home with a white woman.
Parker was a childhood friend of the homeowner, Kristi Walley, who has been paralyzed since she was 15 – and he was helping to care for her.
All of the officers have pleaded guilty to the state charges on Monday, and previously pleaded in a connected federal civil rights case.
In January, the officers entered a property in Mississippi without a warrant, and handcuffed Jenkins and Parker before assaulting them.
The brutal attack included beating included the use of a stun gun as well as sex toys and other objects.
Court documents say officers warned Jenkins and Parker (pictured) to ‘go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River’
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Christian Dedmon (L) and Brett McAlpin (R) are part of the group who handcuffed and assaulted the two black men in January
Former Richland Police officer Joshua Hartfield pleaded guilty to the charges on August 14 along with his five other accused law enforcement officers
Jeffrey Middleton (L) and Daniel Opdyke (R) are two of the officers facing at least five years in jail – not including federal court decisions
Officials say that they mocked them with racial slurs following a 90-minute torture session.
They threw food items at them as they lay on the floor, and forced them to strip naked and shower to get rid of any evidence.
The sick cops repeatedly used their stun guns on the pair in a twisted competition to see which department’s weapons were more powerful.
Prosecutors claim that the law enforcement officers then plotted a coverup, planting drugs and a gun, which initially led to false charges.
But their lies unraveled after one deputy admitted lying to the sheriff, who launched a probe into the incident.
All of the officers confessed to the conspiracy following an instigation, with each one agreeing sentences recommended by state prosecutors ranging from five to 30 years.
Time served for the state charges will run concurrently with federal sentences they are scheduled to receive in November.
Court documents say officers warned Jenkins and Parker to ‘go back to Jackson or ‘their side’ of the Pearl River.’
Elward was charged with home invasion and aggravated assault for shoving a gun in the mouth of one of the men and pulling the trigger – in what prosecutors called a ‘mock execution’
Deputies for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, and one from the Richland Police Department, have been charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice
Kristi Walley, whose home the men were in, said in February of Parker: ‘He’s a blessing.
‘Every time I’ve needed him he’s been here. There were times I’ve been living here by myself and I didn’t know what I was going to do.’
